


Monsters & Roses

by DianaSolaris



Category: Original Work
Genre: Children's Stories, Monsters, Other, Parent Death, Single Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 11:17:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15728301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DianaSolaris/pseuds/DianaSolaris
Summary: Suzy Chabon knows about lots of things! She knows there are monsters in her room, and she also knows they're pretty nice, if a bit silly. And she knows that flowers are magic, and can say things better than words. She also knows adults are stupid sometimes. But that's okay. She can get things done her way.





	Monsters & Roses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silveradept](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/gifts).



> I hope you like this! I saw the prompt and laughed out loud - it's SO cute.

As of the August before her seventh birthday, Suzy Chabon was concerned about three things. The first of these was mostly frustrating. Her dad, who was like most adults and frustratingly ignorant when it came to the obvious, kept telling her there weren’t any monsters in her room. As a matter of fact, there were two; one in her closet, and one under the bed.

Second of all, the two monsters kept _arguing._ Suzy didn’t mind this so much. There had been a brief interlude at the beginning where they had attempted to scare her, and it had sort of worked, but she much preferred their bickering. It was funny. Still, that brought her to number three…

…where the Bed Monster was _trying_ to ask out the Closet Monster, and Suzy had had quite enough of them being god-awful at it. There was _romance_ blooming in her room, and she was going to help! Besides, as funny as the bickering was, she wanted to go to sleep sometimes. And the Closet Monster kept shedding all over her favourite dresses.

So Suzy Chabon was awake, and she was plotting.

First, she called out, “Mr. Closet Monster? Are you around?”

“They’re out,” came the sigh from under her bed. “And it’s not Mister, it’s Glorb.”

“Oh, okay. So Mr. Glorb?”

“No, more like – he scares, she scares, they scare, glorb scares…”

“Ohhh. I see. Are you Glorb Under The Bed Monster then?”

The monster chuckled. “Glub.”

Suzy nodded consideringly. Monsters were very different than humans – although, come to think of it, they still got crushes. So maybe not that different. “Well, you and I have to come up with a plan!” She pushed her head over the edge of the mattress, staring into the abyss that was Under Her Bed. The Bed Monster stared balefully back at her, all seven eyes a little red from crying.

“Don’t worry,” Suzy said comfortingly. “Glorb’ll say yes! I know it. You just have to _court_ hi- er, glorb. You know, like chilavry!”

“Chivalry?” asked the Bed Monster with a smile, tentacle making a question mark.

“…Yeah, that. Anyway. You should order glorb flowers!”

“Uh, how? I can’t exactly use a phone.” The Bed Monster waved glub tentacle mournfully. “Besides, what are flowers good for?”

“Oh, flowers are magical. My dad says they’re for saying things that are too hard to say out loud! Just tell me what to order, and I’ll do it.” Suzy decided to leave out the part where she’d need to use her dad’s credit card. She’d come up with a convincing lie.

The Bed Monster hemmed, and hawed, and thought about it. Then glub nodded. “I want glorb to know that I care.”

“Okay!”

\---

Suzy’s father tapped his foot, and stared down at her with a look of confusion. Suzy didn’t know what he was so confused about. She’d explained herself just fine.

“You don’t have to lie, Suzy.”

“But I’m not!” Now that – _that_ was one of the most infuriating things adults did. If they couldn’t understand a situation, they assumed somebody was lying. Sometimes things were just _weird._

Like the fact that she wasn’t sure she could just _say_ that the two dozen roses she’d ordered off her dad’s credit card were for the Closet Monster. Her dad was firmly convinced that there were no monsters _anywhere_ in her room, and she wasn’t going to be responsible for bursting his bubble of innocence. Next he’d ask who was really eating the vegetables off her plate and she’d have to fess up that Bed Monster and Closet Monster loved carrots just as much as she hated them.

“I –“ She paused, trying to come up with something her dad would believe. “I want to be a floralologist.”

Her dad blinked. Then he sighed. “Herbologist. Or botanist.”

“Those things!”

“…Very well. You can have _some_ of them in your room.”

Adults were so _bizarre,_ she thought as she carried the vase back into her room. Well, nevertheless, she had the flowers she needed.

She readied them at the closet door, then called out, “Glub Bed Monster?”

There were silence, and Suzy frowned, then peered back at the closet. How _did_ Closet Monster go anywhere, anyway? It wasn’t like glorb could just sneak past her dad _every_ time.

Suzy took a few steps into the closet. “Hellooooo…” she called. The closet smelled like it always did, a little bit musty, with a faint, lingering scent of wet dog mixed in with the mothballs and dust. But…

She lifted her hand, reaching through the dresses and coats, and instead of touching the particleboard back of the closet, her fingers brushed against something… _furry._

“Eep!” She jumped backwards.

“Oh, sorry, Suzy!” Three eyes opened up near the top of the closet. “It’s just me.”

“You snuck up on me,” she grumbled.

“Technically-“

“Where did you go anyway?”

Glorb paused. “Uh…” Suzy could see the awkwardness in glorb’s big eyes.

“Are you _hiding_ something?” she teased.

“No! No, no, just…” Glorb sighed. “I think the monster under the bed is mad at me.”

Suzy still hadn’t pieced together why they didn’t know each other’s names, but she supposed it was a monster thing. Maybe monsters didn’t _have_ names. Then it processed – “What?” she squeaked.

“W-well, glub and I keep fighting, and I don’t mean to fight all the time, I actually _like_ talking to glub, but – well – glub gets so _quiet_ sometimes. So I decided to leave glub alone for a bit.”

“Augh!” Suzy buried her hands in her hair. “No, glub isn’t mad at you!”

“Glub’s not?”

Suzy sighed. This romance business. Honestly! It had looked so much easier in The Parent Trap. “…You care what glub thinks, don’t you?”

“M-maybe…”

Ha! She’d called it. “Do you _like_ the monster under the bed?”

“A little. Maybe.” Beat. “Maybe a lot.”

“You’re in luck!” Suzy opened the closet door, grabbed the vase of roses and handed it to the Closet Monster. “I got these for a school project. You should give them to glub. And maybe ask glub’s name.”

“Oh god – I couldn’t do _that!_ That’s moving far too fast.”

“What, flowers?”

“No, glub’s name. That’s for marriage. I-I mean, I like glub fine, just-“

“Go give glub the flowers,” Suzy sighed. Monsters were _weird._

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I gotta go to school now. But you two be good, okay?” She grabbed her backpack, feeling _very_ proud of herself.

\---

Suzy came home from school that afternoon to a room that didn’t look any different, but _felt_ so much emptier. She knew what it was. The monsters had both gone somewhere else, and that was a good thing – it meant her plan had worked.

Still… She flopped on her bed, and sighed. She supposed that was that. They were going to run off and be all gloppy and cute and forget she existed. It wasn’t like they’d been very _good_ at scaring her, but… well.

Then she rolled slightly the wrong way, and something pricked her in the back. “Ow!” She sat up, and lifted her pillow. There was one of the roses underneath; the thorn had jutted slightly through the pillowcase. Next to it was a note.

“Back soon – we promise,” she mumbled to herself as she read it. Then she grinned. It’d worked… and they were going to come back, too.

There was a knock at the door. “Suzy?”

“Dad!” She stuffed the rose and note back under the pillow as he came in, holding a book in his hand and giving her a wry smile.

“I was on my way home from work, and I found this at a garage sale.” He handed it to her, and she ran her hands over the cover. _A Beginner’s Guide to Herbology and Flower Language._

“You’re the one who tells me flowers are for talking,” she said with a laugh.

“They are. Just if you want to know what you’re saying, this’ll help.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Then she paused. “…What flowers do you get for Mom?”

He blinked, then lifted his hand to her chin. “Lilies. They were her favourite.”

“What do those say?”

“I don’t know what the book says. But for me, they’re saying…” He exhaled. “They’re saying that she has a wonderful daughter, who’s smart enough to steal my credit card without me noticing, and sweet enough to use it for flowers instead of… oh, I don’t know. Pizza. And they’re saying that I miss her every day, and she’s missing out… but that you’re doing okay.”

Suzy nodded, a lump growing in her throat. Then she crawled into her dad’s lap. “Tell me how you met.”

“Alright.”

Her dad didn’t notice when two other presences reappeared in the room, listening intently to his soft voice. How could he? He was grown up already. But that was okay. She forgave him.

 


End file.
